TICK Tac Toe
by emrys-knight
Summary: 3.05 if they hadn't figured out it was a tick when they did. Sort of an AE


NOTE: I, for some reason, had no idea what to do with this absolutely amazing prompt. I did my best, lo siento for the quality. (prompt fill)

...-...-...

The hours moved by at a rate slower than Christmas. Natalie walked by Will's room countless times, hating what she saw. A strong, capable, intelligent man reduced to a gown, needles and suffering. The oxygen mask was an awful sight, covering his beautiful face. She wanted to see him running around the ED, taking care of the patients he cared for so much. She wanted so much, only to be denied them by an unknown source of his suffering. They'd run a million tests, asked a million questions. Nothing. No source of sickness.

His whole body had paralyzed. It got so bad, his organs started to seize. The only bright side of the situation, in Nat's opinion, was the fact that his lungs and heart hadn't paralyzed… yet.

The original patient was already in a coma-like state, all organs except for the heart and brain failed. If the doctors were honest, the heart was about to require a machine to function, itself.

"Maggie, how is he?" Natalie pulled her friend and colleague to the side, crossing her arms to await an answer.

"Na-"

She sensed an oncoming sugar-coat. "Be honest. Please."

"He's getting worse. The other patient… I'm not sure Will has the time."

Natalie uncrossed her arms, bringing her hands to a tight grip on the main desk, knuckles turning white. "I can't do this again, Maggie."

"I know. Me, neither."

Natalie released her grasp on the desk. She crossed her arms once again, bringing her curled up pointer finger to her pursed lips. Her mind moved at incredible speeds, listing all of the possible diseases he could have, eliminating the ones they'd tested for that yielded a negative result. "At this point, I'd just give anything to know what he has. We can figure out cures later, but, I just want to know what it is that's causing this, y'know?"

"Yeah. Look, take your break. Go see him."

Natalie nodded, a silent thanks to her friend. She went about her way to see the doctor, regardless of her fear of his decline in wellbeing while she visited.

:::::::

"Hey." Will's voice was weak and raspy under the oxygen mask. He kept a smile, though. Much to Natalie's pleasure, it was visible through the material.

"Hey, there," She sat on the rolling stool next to his bed, a hand in his. "How you feeling?"

He tried to move, huffing at his lack of ability. "Honestly, I'm all over the place."

Surprised at his admission, she pressed on. "What do you mean?"

"Physically, I'm getting worse. No-one will tell me that but I know. I can't move anything but my mouth and my eyebrows. I can't do anything for myself anymore. I'm scared of leaving Jay behind after everything he's been through…" He stopped himself, not before having admitted everything.

"You… Don't do that."

"What?"

"You just showed a lot of emotion and I don't like it. It sounds like you're expecting to die so you don't care."

Will winced. "It's possible, Nat. I keep progressively getting worse and we still don't know what it is."

"I know, but, we'll figure it out. We will. We just need-"

"Time? Is that it? Time?" Will scoffed. "You forgetting I work here, too? That's Chicago Med, and probably medicine field speak for 'We have no idea what's going on.' or 'We don't know what to do.' I know what you should be saying so stop treating me like every other patient."

Natalie stared at the print on his gown. She sighed, interlocking her fingers and bringing her elbows to her knees. "Do you want me to call your brother?"

Will gave it a moment of thought. He didn't want Jay to worry but it was getting down to that point where maybe it was best he knew. "Yeah, thanks." Really? 'Yeah, thanks.' That's the best he had? The woman was trying to help. She was trying to care for him and make things easier and all he had was 'Yeah, thanks'? He felt like an idiot. He wanted to make her know how much he loved her, how much he appreciated her, but every word that came out of his mouth was so damn stupid! How could he be so horrible with talking to people? He was a doctor! His job was to talk to people! He wanted to facepalm but the motion never came. The signal from his brain to his limbs and hands were never sent. Or maybe it was but it was never received. Or maybe it was received but his extremities left his brain on read. He didn't know and that was the problem. Nobody knew anything.

He thought about what he'd just allowed Nat to do. Maybe calling Jay wasn't the best course of action. He didn't want his little brother to see him like that. Vulnerable and dying. He didn't want Jay to have to watch him die. Okay, it'd be his choice, obviously, but he didn't want Jay to _choose_ to see him die. To say with him until the last breath, the flatlining EKG. He should have told her no. He should have just let Jay find out some other way he'd have died. No, he'd be pissed. He'd want to be with Will while he was dying. Will laughed. He'd be dead so technically it wouldn't be his problem. He winced once more.

:::::::

"Will!" Jay ran into the room, skidding to a halt right next to his big brother's bed. "What the hell happened?!" He faced Natalie, face red with rage.

"W-we don't know."

"Jay… I'm sorry I didn't have them call you, earlier. I just-"

"You wouldn't have called me unless you thought you were dying. You think you're dying?" Jay looked to both of them, frustrated with a lack of answer. He ran both hands through his hair with a great desire to scream. "You think you're gonna die. Dammit, Will."

Will scrunched his eyes shut, pain overtaking his mind, desperately wanting to grab for his chest as he tried to bring in a lungful of air. Jay stumbled out of the way while Natalie pushed him aside, getting to the love of her life. She could have cried at the fact of what she needed to do. She took his mask off, yelling for help while she prepped the eldest Halstead for intubation. He struggled as best he could which was, admittedly, not much to speak of. His loved ones could see the intense fear in his eyes.

The nurses finally got into the room, quickly getting to work, injecting sedatives into his IV. Jay was relieved and terrified at the same time. His brother wasn't suffering anymore but… would he die in his sleep, the two unable to say goodbye? Dammit, Lindsay treated him the way she did then abandoned him, his unit has questioned his moral capabilities a few times. Was he really about to lose the best thing in his life?

He watched on as the nurses shuffled the doctor's body around, his arms laid to the side of his body. The cliche coma position. Great.

When they left, Natalie stayed, hoping to calm Jay, regardless of the fact she knew she couldn't. "I know it's not much, but, there's a bright side to this."

"Funny how you think so."

"It's just his lungs, Jay. His brain and heart are still working."

"Yeah. They're the only ones left. After this, he's got nothing left to keep him from dying." Jay paced before landing a strong fist into the drywall next to the door. He cried out, quickly bringing his hand out of the hole. The edges of the broken up drywall were crimson, dripping the red liquid.

"Your hand's broken." Natalie crossed her arms. His fist was bloodied and slightly disfigured. He wanted to cry so badly. He kept his tears at bay, though, fearing he'd need them while he was dressed in all black standing next to one of those stupid wooden boxes like he'd done countless times before.

"It's fine."

Natalie laughed. "You two. So much more in common than you think." She quietly led the sexy freckled baby Halstead out into the halls of the ED, finding April. "Can you fix his hand for me?"

April looked on at his wounded hand. "Come on," She took a gentle grip to his good hand, leading him back into Will's room, after asking another nurse to bring her the thing she'd need.

:::::::

"A tick? No it's not. You're serious? A tick?" Natalie could have passed out. "That's ridiculous."

"I'll find out how to remove it from the first patient, then we'll do it for Will." Choi crossed his arms.

"Thank God. This is easily curable. He should wake up in, what, one to two days?"

"Maybe earlier."

She sighed in relief. "Good."

:::::::

Will's brow furrowed, he turned his head, feeling- wait… He turned his head! He could- Holy crap, he could bring his hand up to his face to rub on his eyebrows! Wow, eyebrows had never felt so good to touch before. He couldn't help but laugh at it, opening his eyes to look around the room.

A particular figure caught his eye in the dark, artificially lit ICU room. A certain freckled detective with sometimes blue, sometimes green eyes. He smiled. He smiled so big, ear to ear, for so many reasons. He was alive. His baby brother was sitting next to him for what looked like a long time. His hair was all over the place, bags under his eyes, clothes disheveled. He'd been waiting for him to wake up for so long, he'd fallen asleep, himself. Good. He deserved it. He was a damn good detective, cop, brother, friend, man and any other good thing a man could be. Okay maybe not cook… Yeah, his cooking sucked but Will would be remiss not to admit the guy put heart into it.

"Hey, man." Will smiled.

No response.

"Jay."

The detective flinched, waking up, looking towards his big brother. "Hey!" A hushed yell. "How you feel?"

Will smiled, shrugging, outstretching his arms. He couldn't help but laugh, a little.

"Dude, that's great!" A louder yell. He stood, making his way to the side of the hospital bed. "What about the legs?"

The doctor moved his legs, bringing himself into a criss-cross sitting position then stretching his legs back out, straightening them. Jay practically jumped for joy, smiling ear-to-ear like his big brother was in that moment. "You can move."

"Yeah, man! What happened?"

"They said it was a tic? The original patient had a tick and, somehow, the disease went to you, I dunno."

Will laughed. "Well put, man."

"Thanks, dick." Jay sat back in his chair, watching Will take a sip of his drink with his own hand, by his own choice, as he wanted.

"Hey, what happened to your hand?"

"Undercover thing that went wrong. Long story."

"Huh. I guess that explains the hole in the wall."

"It- I uh… Yeah, it does." Jay refused to speak further on it. "I'm really glad you're awake, man."

"Me, too. I can't leave you here by yourself."

Jay kept his eyes to the floor, not wanting to show his glassy eyes.

"You'd probably burn my apartment down." The two laughed.

"On purpose, of course."

"Of course."

"It's okay. I have you in my will." Will laid a bit further down in the bed.

"What do I get?" He laughed.

"Mouch gets joint custody of you. With Voight."

"Haha, very funny." Jay watched as Will's serious facial expression didn't falter. "You're serious?"

"If I ever die, God forbid, you'll understand why."

Jay stared at his big brother, dumbfounded at the statement.

"Goodnight, little bro."

Jay laughed, deciding to brush it off until a later date. "Goodnight, big bro."


End file.
